The authors conducted a study to assess the importance of underlying liver cirrhosis in the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and the multifactorial etiology of liver cirrhosis in chronic carriers of hepatitis B virus (HBV).

Between November 1980 and May 1990, all male hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) carriers who routinely attended a clinic for asymptomatic HBV carriers at the Liver Unit of Chang-Gung Memorial Hospital, Taiwan, were enrolled in the study (n=1,506).

The authors used this cohort to investigate prospectively for liver cirrhosis and HCC at 6-month intervals by means of ultrasonography and clinical assessment.

There were 16 incident cases of HCC and 89 cases of liver cirrhosis (78 of whom were detected during follow-up) identified after an average follow-up of 7.1 years.